CEO Letter - December 2018
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the December issue of Focus.
On behalf of the entire WFE community, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep sadness at the passing of Robert Cox on 7 December 2018. Bob was a friend of mine, and of the WFE, and we worked together on many interesting projects, panels and events. He had an extraordinary intelligence, infectious humour and managed to inject just a little bit of rock star into every presentation he made. At our IOMA Clearing & Derivatives conference in Frankfurt last year, he asked us to play The Beatles’ Revolution as he was heading up on stage to present his deck entitled ‘Say you want a resolution?’, on that most rock ’n’ roll of subjects - CCP recovery and resolution. It’s a perfect example of how seamlessly he blended personality and style with the sharpest of insights. Like the best clearing executives, he had the gift of making the most complex concepts seem simple and intuitive. He will be sorely missed. I send my deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Following the WFE signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) in November, we are pleased to welcome Oscar Onyema, CEO of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), and outgoing President of ASEA as December’s Executive Profile. Oscar takes us through the key takeaways from the recent ASEA Annual Conference, shares his most significant moments following his four-year tenure as ASEA President, and outlines why the WFE/ASEA MOU is so important for the region.
Earlier this year, DTCC’s Office of Fintech Strategy commissioned a research project to better understand the performance and scalability of distributed ledger technology (DLT). Jennifer Peve, Managing Director & Head of Solutions Business Development & Co-Head of the Office of Fintech Strategy from DTCC discusses the results of the study in this month’s magazine. Whilst the results are encouraging, Jennifer concludes that additional work needs to be done to prove whether the technology can meet the resiliency, security, and regulatory performance and scalability requirements of DTCC’s existing clearance and settlement system.
We have a piece about B3 announcing the results of the second year of its 'Report or Explain for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)' initiative. This is a joint strategy with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and sets down efforts by companies listed on B3 to publish sustainability or integrated reports that incorporate the SDGs - 17 global goals defined in 2015 by the United Nations.
At this time of year in particular, it’s important to think about how we can give back, so we are delighted to feature a piece about the recent annual ‘Bull Charge’ hosted by Singapore Exchange (SGX). The 15th edition of the charity run was the grand finale to a year-long programme that has seen more than $3.3 million raised for underprivileged children and families, people with disabilities, and the elderly. We congratulate SGX and the local financial community for this extraordinary achievement.
The WFE recently participated in an International Conference on Emerging Perspectives on FinTech, hosted by the National Institute of Financial Management, in New Delhi, India. We feature a summary of the panel on Global Experiences & International Cooperation in FinTech that the WFE took part in along with representatives from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the World Bank, Refinitiv and PayPal. The WFE also moderated a panel on ‘Cryptocurrencies: exchanges and regulation' at the recent City & Financial ‘Regulation of Cryptocurrencies’ conference, and we have a summary of the key themes to emerge from the event.
This month, the WFE Research Team’s monthly insights piece looks at new listings and investment flows through IPOs in the month of November 2018 when compared to November 2017. It has also published its latest dashboard and market statistics.
We are looking forward to a packed agenda for 2019, kicking off with the January Working Committee (Tuesday 22 January 2019, London). This will be followed by our annual in-person meeting for members of the WFE Statistics Advisory Group (SAG)(Wednesday 23 January 2019, London, SAG members only).
Planning is also underway for our annual IOMA: WFE’s Clearing & Derivatives Conference 2019, which will take place 2-4 April in Mumbai; the website and online registration will be live in the New Year, so please look out for that.
Our second Working Committee meeting is also in the calendar (Wednesday 12 June, Zurich).
The bi-annual WFE Technology Conference will be held 30 June-2 July in Umea, Sweden. Watch this space for more information about the conference and registration details.
As we come to the end of 2018, it’s time to reflect on another pivotal year for the WFE, as we continue on our journey as the voice of the global exchange and CCP industry. Our work this year has seen us move the dial on business-critical topics such as the reform of the Leverage Ratio; we have led the debate on the role of financial market infrastructures in preserving market integrity; and we continue to push for change in the area of sustainable finance. At the same time, the WFE itself continues to grow, with 70 full members, an historic high.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you - our members, affiliates, stakeholders, readers and friends - for your ongoing support as we look ahead to an exciting year in 2019.
We wish you all the best for the festive season, and look forward to speaking in the New Year.